HAVING been made redundant while away on maternity leave and living thousands of miles away from family and friends, Juliet Browse could have been forgiven for thinking she was facing a bleak future.

A chance visit to an evening class and dash of hard graft however, and Juliet is now in charge of a booming international bead and jewellery business that has just been crowned Britain’s best by an industry leading magazine.

Based in Haddenham, Spoilt Rotten Beads has grown from a one-woman operation running out of a cluttered spare room into an international import/export business, employing six people and boasting its own shop in the village.

Julie had risen to became head of marketing at London-based Capital Radio when, in 2003, she fell pregnant and went away with her husband to Cyprus to spend time with him on an army base where he had been stationed.

After giving birth, Juliet was hit with the news that she had been made redundant and, living thousands of miles away from family and friends, she was forced to wait it out in Cyprus until she could find a way back home.

To give her some downtime in-between looking after her newborn baby, Juliet decided to attend a bead and jewellery class on the army base and was instantly taken, having harboured a love of arts and crafts from a young age.

“I continued to make jewellery at home but I quickly came to a point when I couldn’t wear all of what I was making so I decided to sell a few of the pieces,” said Juliet.

“I was making and selling the items to friends and some of the mums on the base from a tiny spare room but I quickly outgrew it.”

After returning to England in 2005, Juliet rented a room at Haddenham Galleries and watched as her business continued to grow at a rapid rate.

In 2008, she moved into her current premises on The Green and started taking on extra staff to cope with orders that were coming in from around the world.

“We ship about 40-50 orders a day out to places like Australia, the States, Europe and Africa and we have people coming from all over the UK to take part in our jewellery-making workshops,” said Juliet.

This year marked six years since Juliet started out with beads and it was crowned with a national award from Beads and Beyond magazine as well as short-listing from Make Jewellery magazine for the nation’s best workshops.

“It is a fantastic achievement for a business that started out of tiny spare room, we are all so pleased,” added Juliet.